INVESTMENTS: Obstacle Course

The Administration, which hopes to make
private investment abroad a big part of its "Trade, Not Aid" program,
got some discouraging news last week from one of the program's most
ardent supporters. In a 132-page report, the first installment of a
three-part study, the Commerce Department's Office of International
Trade tested the climate for U.S. venture capital in the world's major
countries and came to a chilling conclusion: "Prospects for a greatly
increased flow of U.S. private investment abroad are unfavorable in the
next few years."

Everywhere OIT men looked, they saw the same basic obstacles: currency
restrictions, freezing of investment...